The Benefits of Honoring Your Parents

If you want a sermon title, I'll give it to you. It's "Benefits of Honoring Your Parents."

Henry Washington Younger was born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, on February 22, 1810 — that's before me. He later lived in Greenwood, Missouri, and was the second mayor of Harrisonville, Missouri. He married Bersheba Bristow when he was 20 years old; she was the daughter of a prominent Jackson County farmer. Henry was a well-known farmer, businessman, and mail agent across western Missouri and eastern Kansas — we all know where that is.

While Henry Younger was on a business trip, he was murdered and possibly robbed on July 20, 1862, just south of Westport, Missouri. It was a politically motivated murder. Soon after his murder, Bersheba's house was burned down, and she had to flee to another town. You can just picture this in your mind — my house burned down when I was 10, and everybody was gone when I looked up from the gate to walk in through the fence. I didn't know where they were. That's a terrible feeling. But anyway, that's a different story.

There was a lot of tension at the time because the country was very divided over the Civil War. Missouri was fiercely divided, and there were many neighbor-to-neighbor conflicts as well as regular army battles. Henry Washington Younger had refused to be involved in the violence and tried to foster dialogue between the two sides. But his sons didn't follow his footsteps. Three of his sons — Cole, Jim, and John Younger — joined Quantrill's Raiders, the pro-Confederate guerrillas. I'm sure that probably really bothered him — it would bother me if my sons did that. Cole, Jim, and John, and later Bob, the fourth brother, all became outlaws, and some even joined the James Gang with Jesse and Frank James.

Well, things didn't go well for most of the Younger brothers. Cole served 25 years in prison; he was paroled in 1901, repented, and lived the rest of his life as a reformed man. He died peacefully at the age of 72, so he got to live a decently long life. Bob died in prison after pleading guilty to murder — he was 35 years old when he died of tuberculosis on September 16, 1889. John was killed in a gunfight between Roscoe and Osceola, Missouri, at the age of 22, in March of 1874. Jim committed suicide on October 19, 1892 — I suspect one of the reasons was that one of the conditions of his release from prison was that he could never marry. If you had that in mind — that Jim was never going to be able to marry, never find that — that would set you off to the side a bit.

Well, vengeance belongs to God. Henry, the father of the Younger brothers, would not have wanted his sons to seek vengeance. They weren't honoring their parents when they became criminals.

So please turn to Proverbs 1, verses 8 through 18: "My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother; for they will be a graceful ornament on your head, and chains about your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, 'Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood, let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause; let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we shall find all kinds of precious possessions, we shall fill our houses with spoil; cast in your lot among us, let us all have one purse' — my son, do not walk in the way with them, keep your foot from their path; for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. Surely, in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird; but they lie in wait for their own blood, they lurk secretly for their own lives." I know when you're in school, you see the ones who are doing the wrong things, and they say, "Let's go do this and do that." It'll get you in trouble. Don't do it. If you know better, just say no.

Let's turn to Deuteronomy 32, verse 35: "Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them." And continuing, "The Lord will judge His people and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone." God will be the vengeance of them. That's the story of something that went wrong.

Luke 15 is an example of someone who got sidetracked by worldly enticement. We can all get sidetracked in life, one way or another. You've always heard "the grass is greener on the other side of the fence" — not always so, though. Let's begin in verse 11: "Then He said: 'A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me." So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.'" Maybe he took his money and went to Vegas — that doesn't do any good, does it?

"But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything." Doesn't sound very good, does it? "But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants."' And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry."

Now his older son didn't take it well. He was in the field, and as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And the servant said to him, "Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf." But the older brother was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, "Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him." And the father said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found."

We know people who have gone astray in different ways in life, but when they come to their senses and accept the reality of it, we celebrate that.

Let's turn to Ephesians 4:26–27: "Be angry, and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil." That's all the devil wants — is for you to do that.

Let's go to Romans 12, verse 19: "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord."

And let's turn to Malachi 4, verse 5: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse." We look forward to that day when everything is turned around. Today, we know that people are often against each other — sons against fathers, daughters against mothers, and vice versa — but that will change someday.

Exodus 20 — I'll just read this: "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you." This is the first commandment with a promise. We know parents who are honorable and have been good examples to us. But we can obey our heavenly Father, which is the main thing to do, and have the promise of a long and better life.